The Art of Changing Minds
by puffle.elle
Summary: It had taken me approximately 36 months, 24 days and 15 hours to finally accept my fate. A long three years if I say so myself. Three years of his incessant begging and pleading. Three years of his messing my life up- and I had decided to go falling in love with him now! Let me tell you this much- James Potter was totally and incomprehensibly worth it. But for now, I had ruined it.
1. That Bloody Recognisable Voice

_**A/N:** Hello! So this is my first, dare I say, attempt at fan fiction- so please review! If you don't like it- be brutal. If you do- then be even more brutal! Evidently I do not own Harry Potter- and if you thought I did, well, this story may not be the best place for you. I hope you enjoy, and please, please, please review. _

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The Art of Changing Minds- Chapter 1

"Evans!" I cringed. I knew that voice. I also knew that it was one I was _not_ hoping to hear during the first ten minutes of stepping onto the Hogwarts Express. Keep your head down, and find Alice. You never know, he might not follow you this time. "Evans, slow down!" Fat chance. "Merlin Evans. The pace you're going at, you would have thought you didn't want to see me"

I turned around only to be faced by the oh so familiar smirk of the biggest twat on this planet. James Bloody Potter. "You're looking as stunning as ever Lils." He said as he continued to grin down at me.

"What do you want Potter?" I asked, knowing full well what his little expedition was about, but hoping that by giving him the satisfaction of me being confused, he would disappear rather soon.

"Just wanted to say hello to my beautiful flower." I rolled my eyes and tried to escape only to realise that he had trapped me against the side of the train. He was leaning over me with his arms deadlocked on either side. Merlin knows what this must have looked like to any innocent first year who happened to walk past us in the corridor. He chuckled at my attempt to escape.

"Where are the rest of you?" I asked irritated, not that I particularly wanted to see Sirius Black or Peter Pettigrew. This however did not imply that I didn't want to see Remus. In fact- I would have quite liked to be saved by him at this point.

"What do you mean? Do you think that I can't do anything on my own?" He asked somewhat indignantly as he feigned offence.

"That's exactly what I think Potter." I replied as he laughed at me. "Where there is a Potter, there is a Black. Now please budge over so I can get some peace and quiet."

He laughed again and I sighed as I realised that I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

"No, I don't think I will budge over." He smirked at me as he whipped out a cigarette. I glared at him. "At least not before I've asked you a question"

I groaned, "Please don't Potter. You know the answer is no."

"I haven't asked anything yet!" he said, pouting like a little boy who had just been denied a chocolate fudge sundae. "I could have asked you if you had eaten toast for breakfast!"

"Were you going to?" I asked with eyebrows raised.

"No- but…"

"Exactly." I interrupted him. "Now if you don't mind. I'm going to find someone who I actually enjoy spending time with."

"Like me, Evans?" Oh merlin not him too.

"No Sirius. You are not a 'someone' who I particularly enjoy spending time with." I said, irritated.

"No, that's James." He replied. Ugh. They always did this. Confuse me until I reached my breaking point.

"I DO NOT ENJOY SPENDING TIME WITH EITHER YOU OR POTTER!" I yelled, causing massive grins to creep up onto both James and Sirius' faces.

"Are you sure about that Love? Because from where I'm standing it sure looks like you're enjoying spending time with Prongs." Sirius said smirking. His smirk which most girls fell for was slightly more malicious than Potter's. I looked at where I was standing in relation to James. Ah. We did look slightly dodgy…

I took a deep breath and glared at him. "You know full well Sirius Black that I am very capable of hexing you right here and now, if you suggest one more time, that I was getting off with Potter."

"Who's getting off with Potter?" I heard another familiar, yet more welcome, voice call. "He can't have _finally_ moved on from Lily." I made eye contact with him before he laughed and said. "Oh hi Lily!"

"Remus." I said cheerfully and went to hug him, only to discover that I was still being blocked by Potter.

"How come Moony gets a hug and I don't?" James complained loudly.

I looked up at him with my best puppy dog eyes "Please?" I grinned when he let me go.

"Prongs!" Sirius yelled huffily.

I quickly gave Remus a hug and took the opportunity to sprint down the carriage. I laughed as I heard Sirius chastise James for falling for my 'tricks'. Merlin that prick. Eventually I found a carriage and grinned as I spotted the mousey brown hair of my best friend, Alice Milne, inside.

"Alice!" I yelled as I thrust the door open and jumped into my best friend's arms.

"Lily!" She yelled back at me.

"Yeah great to see you too Lily." Teresa, my other (less) best friend said smiling at me.

"Sorry Resa." I apologised as I gave her a hug too. Before we could discuss basically anything about how our holidays were, the carriage door burst open to reveal Dorcas Meadows (one of my roommates) and a very put out Marlene McKinnon.

"I am so confused right now." Marlene said as she collapsed into the seat next to me. "Help me Lils or I think I might die." She was a tad dramatic…

"What may I do you for?" I asked happily.

"I have absolutely no idea who the Gryffindor Quidditch captain is and it's really stressing me out."

"You didn't get it then?" Teresa asked her manipulatively. It was no secret Teresa didn't like Marlene. It was a mutual hatred.

"No, Trees. I didn't get it." She said as she glared at her for a second before continuing. "And I don't know who did. Out of the Seventh years it can't be Liam Tuffley, because he's a prick and everyone knows he was only on the team last year because his brother was captain, it can't be Tom or Mark because I was just in their carriage and they both thought it was me. So that's all of the seventh years, and out of the sixth years there's only me and Potter so it must be him but I was just with them lot and he wasn't bragging about it so I don't know who the hell it could be." She finally took a breath.

"Calm down Marlene." I said in attempt to calm the befuzzled girl. "It's Potter."

"Potter? How do you know?" She asked as she finally sat up.

"His badge was pinned on the inside of his shirt collar." I said as I shrugged.

Alice raised her eyebrows. "How do you know what was on the inside of James' shirt Lily?" She asked inquisitively. I looked around, everyone was staring at me and then I realised what that must have sounded like.

"Merlin- Not like that!" I said disgusted. "Why would you even think that? I could see the shape of the badge through his collar." I shuddered at the thought.

Marlene laughed before turning serious again in order to mentally prepare herself for what she thought needed to be heard, "Those sexist bastards. The only reason Tuffley didn't pick me as captain was because the only thing he thought I was good for was cooking!" Teresa rolled her eyes as Marlene headed into another rant about how women were treated as inferiors at Hogwarts. Don't get me wrong, I loved Marlene, she was just a tad boisterous… If you didn't agree with her you were doomed. Despite her hatred for teenage boys, practically the entire male population of Hogwarts was in love with her as she, to put it simply, was an actual goddess.

By the time Marlene had finished her rant, I had completely zoned out and was only brought back to life when I saw a flash of a pointy nose and some greasy hair walk past our door. For the love of Merlin's baggy y-fronts. He is the last person I need to see. There was a knock on the door. Shit.

"Lily?" The slimy boy asked as he poked his stupid nose around the corner. Alice and Marlene stood up to guard me.

"I'm sorry Severus, you have no bloody right to talk to Lily." Alice said furiously. I had almost never seen her this cross.

"Lily, I was wondering if I could walk you to the prefect's meeting." He continued, ignoring Alice completely.

"You prick! She is an independent woman! She does not need to be _walked_ anywhere. Especially by you." Marlene started.

"Marlene. It's fine." I said quietly, even though it most definitely was not fine. "Resa will come." I said this because she was probably the one of my friends who was most likely to not hex Snape into oblivion- even though I think that I would have been okay with that.

When I finally had managed to persuade Marlene and Lily to let me go, I dragged Teresa out of the carriage and let Snape talk.

"Lily, I'm sorry." He said.

"You've said." I replied bluntly.

"You know I never would have said something like that if it hadn't been for Potter!" He exclaimed.

"And there it is, Snape." I said stiffly.

"And there what is?" He asked longingly. I refused to call him by his first name.

"The reason I won't forgive you. You have to blame Potter. You can't admit it was your own fault." I exclaimed.

"Potter's a swine!" he said resentfully.

"It's not about Potter!" I said angrily. "There's no doubt that Potter's an arrogant bastard." Snape looked up at me hopefully, "But this is about you. And how you called me a… a… I can't even say it!" Snape tried to speak up but I wouldn't let him. "I gave you thousands of chances to break up with your disgusting death eater friends, heck I even stopped seeing my friends for you! But you didn't take them. Even now- you can't take responsibility. How could I not see it before?"

I paused.

"And that is why I will never forgive you." And I glared past his eyes choosing to look straight through him.

"Tell that to her." Snape muttered under his breath pointing his head to Teresa, who was hovering a few feet behind us. "She's the one getting it on with Lestrange." And with that he spun on his feet and scuttled back to the other end of the carriage, leaving me to stare gobsmacked at Resa.


	2. Home again- Naturally

_**A/N:**_ _Hello again! I hope you liked the last chapter and this one just as much. Please Review- or not- it's up to you (But please do!)._

Chapter 2- Home again- Naturally

For the rest of the train ride home, I mulled over my new, potentially disastrous discovery of Resa during my prefect rounds. I knew it was bothering me when I saw a brown haired girl hex a seventh year and decided to do absolutely nothing about it.

"Lily?" Remus asked carefully.

I looked up at him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked sincerely.

"Not really." I said thoughtfully. "But thanks."

He nodded as if he understood but reached to take his wand out of his back pocket. I smiled as he charmed out of nowhere a pink Lily to dance in front of me. Cheesy, but it cheered me up.

"No magic in the train corridors. I should take points off for that." I said smiling.

"But then again- breaking the rules sort of ties into the title of being a prefect." He said with a wink.

"You're such a dork." I said as I nudged him. That's when I realised a massive gash down the back of his neck. "Remus, you're neck?!" I said suddenly shocked.

His smile faded and he pulled his coat collar up to hide the scar from me. "Hiking accident." He mumbled as he slowly sped up down the corridor as if to get away from me. I breathed in and decided that I would forget entirely about Resa until I had a minute alone with her. Which knowing my friends, I wouldn't get for a while…

"Alice please do this with me." I pleaded my best friend as I stared at the terrified first years who were already looking slightly chubbier after just one feast out of the numerous ones to come.

She laughed at me and headed backwards up the stairs. "Have fun Lily." She smirked and ran to catch up with the rest of our friends.

I turned back around dejected and scrutinised the faces of each and every single new first year. "Gryffindors follow me! Please try and keep up and make sure you stick tight to me. We don't want you ending up on the other side of the castle."

I took the scenic route to the Gryffindor Tower because it really was rather wonderful to see the looks on the faces of the small people when we bumped into peeves and had conversations with half of the paintings in the castle. By the time we made it up to the portrait of the fat lady, the first years were practically dead. My tactics were to wear them out slightly so they slept well on their first night, not to drain them of any soul they had in the entirety of their small bodies. Oops.

"Withering Wamblebees." I whispered to the lady who I could have sworn had gotten bigger over the holidays. The portrait swung open and the first years gaped at the, well I had to admit, pretty spectacular common room.

"Alright, you can explore tomorrow, but for now, the boys dorms are up the stairs to your left, and the girls are the same on the right. Sleep Well." As the weary first years made their way up the spiral stairs, I spotted some of my year sitting on the sofas by the fire.

"Lily!" Alice called as she tapped the seat on the sofa beside her. I walked to the sofa and collapsed into the heap of cushions with a sigh. I looked around sheepishly. For an introvert, I honestly had missed the warmth of company. Especially of these people. Remus and Frank Longbottom were heavily engrossed in a game of Wizards chess on the floor by the fire. Pettigrew was watching the game intently like a lost puppy occasionally getting extremely excited and yelling something along the lines of "What a great move!" James was twiddling his small snitch around in his hand occasionally looking around. When I caught him staring at me, I acciod his glasses much to the amusement of Sirius who was sitting between Marlene and…

"Oh Merlin, I'm so sorry, you must think I'm so rude." I squirmed as I blushed furiously. "I didn't see you there. I'm Lily. Lily Evans." I said as I leant my hand to the stunning brown haired girl who was sitting on the other side of Sirius.

She smiled kindly at me. "Oh don't worry. I'm Aurora De Winter. Just call me Rory." She said as she took my hand. She looked familiar but I couldn't for the life of me work out from where.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" I asked her.

"She was the girl who we saw hexing Donald Davis on the train." Remus piped up- refusing to remove his eyes from the chess board in front of him.

"Oh?" I asked raising my eyebrows.

"He said I had a nice arse- so I hexed his eyebrows off." She replied in a matter of fact sort of way. Marlene grinned and I was impressed.

"He wasn't wrong." Sirius added smugly.

Marlene waved her wand causing a gush of wind to slap him across the face as she exclaimed, "Rory just moved here from Castelobruxo."

After Rory had kindly decided to share about her time at the Brazilian School, we all began to feel like our adventures with Peeves the Poltergeist didn't really amount to much excitement in comparison with her wild and wacky tales of narrowly escaping the Caipora (creatures which guarded their castle). James and Sirius seemed the most disappointed with these stories- presumably because their arrogant brains couldn't cope with the fact that someone- a girl no less- had managed to outdo their adventurous lifestyle of 'living on the edge'.

Alice looking excited suddenly exclaimed, "Well after that enlightening story I think we all agree that our lives are pretty dull."

"Just like Sirius' hair." Marlene said straight faced.

Which received a "You love me really." From the shaggy haired boy sitting next to her.

After laughing slightly, Alice continued, "Then we need to do something about that don't we? Everybody write their sixth year resolution on a piece of paper." She exclaimed as she ripped some paper out of a notebook that had come out of nowhere. "Then put it in this hat and we'll read them all out anonymously." She added as everyone wearily put their pieces of paper into Remus' beanie.

"Lily do you want to do the honours?" She asked me as she leant the hat to me. I had no intention of reading out everyone's resolutions but due to the sincerely sweet look on her face, I took the hat anyways.

"I am going to ENSURE that Gryffindor will win the Quidditch cup." I read out loud. Well that was either James or Marlene.

"Yes I will." Marlene said with a smile. So it was Marlene- no need for secrecy from her.

"Marlene you weren't supposed to say!" Alice exclaimed.

She shrugged. "We all knew it was me anyway." Fair enough.

"I am going to ask the girl of my dreams out and she _will_ say yes." I read. Everyone's eyes shifted to Potter. I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Cheesy Prongs, real cheesy." Sirius exclaimed with a smirk. Frank laughed awkwardly in agreement.

Potter looked up dejected. "Why do you all think it's me?"

"Do you really need to ask us that?" Remus replied with a smirk.

"Absolutely. It's not like I need motivation to successfully win over the girl of my dreams." He said as he winked at me. I heard Alice intake a breath.

"Is that so Potter?" I asked pointedly. He backed down. Peter let out a huge sigh of relief. I had let it slide. This time.

Looking down at the next piece of paper I rolled my eyes and put on a strict voice as I read. "Deer Lily flower." Insert vomit here. "Although I really doe love the fact that you are in possession of something that is so deer to me," He really needed to sort out his spelling. "I am pretty much blind without my glasses so please can you send them back to me. Lots of Love, James."

James grinned. "See I told you the last one wasn't me."

Sirius chuckled and discretely held up three fingers and mouthed at Remus, "That's three."

Remus laughed and replied with, "Wait 'till you hear mine." Merlin they were odd.

"James you were meant to write a resolution for living on the edge- not a note declaring how much of an arrogant twat you are." Marlene said in a matter of fact way.

I could just make out Sirius whispering to Rory, "Believe me, Calling Lily Evans out, is the definition of living on the edge. She can produce a bat bogey hex like no other." I smiled to myself. True.

"Glasses?" James suggested timidly.

"No chance." I said smirking. Power was fun. "I am going to hide Mrs Norris from Filch in the room of requirement. Don't rat me out." I read. That was a reasonably good one.

"You call these living on the edge? Lils read mine." Sirius said excitedly. Apparently not.

"She can't just pick yours out Black she's not magic." Marlene exclaimed irritated before realising what she had just said.

"I think there's a small chance she actually might be McKinnon." Sirius replied flashing his winning smile.

"Just a small one." Rory added giggling.

"Ughh." she groaned. "You can't actually be serious. You know what I meant." Bad move. Surely she had known Black for long enough to know there were some words you just didn't say around him.

"Moony what do you think?" Remus just rolled his eyes as he suppressed a laugh. "How about you Longbottom?" Frank in the same fashion stifled a laugh as his eyes went around in a circle "No McKinnon I am definitely Serious. Sirius Black in fact." Rory laughed- you could tell she was new. We had heard this joke in the course of our five years at Hogwarts approximately six hundred and twenty two times and there were no less than seven variations of it. Not that I was counting. Sirius grinned from ear to ear. He hadn't earned a laugh from that one in years.

"Accio Sirius' piece of paper." I said with a flick of my wand.

"Lily you can't honestly think that will work?" Alice exclaimed.

I raised my eyebrows as the scrap of paper flew out of the hat and in to my hand. "Never underestimate the power of Accio." I said as I grinned at her- it was honestly my favourite spell. "I am going to get Snivellus caught up in a massive mess- numerous times. Maybe once a month. Which may or may not involve ever-sticky slime. You're welcome Evans." I sighed, the mention of Snape wears me out.

"No change there then. I thought you said you had thought of something good?" Marlene said as she nudged his shoulder.

Sirius grinned "Listen Love, nothing- and I mean nothing- is more thrilling than watching Snivellus slip backwards in green slime and land on his arse. If you haven't seen it, you haven't lived."

Potter nodded in agreement, "He speaks the truth- even if he does lack in originality."

"Oi!" Sirius yelled indignantly and over enthusiastically- causing Pettigrew to squeak a little.

I looked down at the next piece of paper and grinned so much I think my teeth began to hurt. "I am going to become a kick-ass auror, show Bellatrix Black who's in charge, have three beautiful children, (all in good time of course) and possibly defeat Volde-fucking-mort along the way." Everyone stared at me shocked. Sirius was positively glowing. "What are you looking at it wasn't me!" I exclaimed, slightly disappointed that it wasn't actually in fact me.

"Who then? Longbottom?" Sirius asked and Frank shook his head. "Wormtail?" Peter piped up but quickly shook his head. "De Winter?" He then asked suspiciously only to receive another 'nope' "Moony." Sirius said satisfied but he only received another head shake. "That means…" Sirius looked shocked as he stared at Alice. "Milne?!"

She grinned. "The one and only." Everyone looked extremely excited at this new revelation.

"Alice Milne. Have I ever told you how much I love you?" Sirius exclaimed happily.

Alice laughed and said, "I spoke the truth, the whole truth and only the truth." I grinned and hugged my best friend proudly. Merlin she had some guts.

Remus let out a low whistle, "How the hell am I meant to follow that? Lily read mine"

"Men usually go stag to monthly meals at which cheese is the main course. Of course they are all dogged by those vicious rats whose main aim is to destroy what deer relationships the lads have with their pack." I read slowly.

Sirius and James both let out a massive cackle.

"What in Merlin's name Remus?" I asked utterly confused.

He simply shrugged and said, "I win."

Peter exclaimed, "That's not fair!" much to the amusement of Sirius and James who had apparently thought it best to keep the rest of us in the dark.

I felt through the hat and found that there were only two left. 50-50 percent chance. Fingers crossed mine had happened to disappear. I breathed in. Nobody would know it was mine anyway. I looked down at the paper. It was mine. Shit.

"I will pluck up the courage to firstly send a parcel of dung bombs to my sister's boyfriend. By _owl._ Secondly tell someone I know that he's a right prick. Bastard would do just fine. And finally send said person flying into the mouth of the giant squid." Alice laughed knowing full well who had written this 'resolution' and also who the 'resolution' was written about. After all she had visited me last summer, enjoying the pleasurable experience of meeting both Petunia and Vernon Dursley. I wouldn't indulge her by telling her who the second person was. Not yet at least.

I soon carried on, enjoying the fact that no one had even shared a look with me during that period of time. "I will join the Gryffindor Quidditch team and become the best chaser to ever set broom Hogwarts."

James looked up and casually said, "No one is a better chaser than me."

"I wouldn't be too sure Mr not cocky at all." Rory said grinning.

"You?!" Marlene said excited. "You play Quidditch!" She shrieked.

"I dabble." Rory replied smirking. "Got offered a spot on the Tarapoto Tree skinners. That's why I was in Brazil. Didn't take it though. Stayed in the area anyways- the weather was nice. Only came back because Hogwarts is a good stepping stone to the national teams." James' jaw dropped. Right to the ground. I laughed to myself. Finally someone as cocky as Potter to shut him up!

"You have honestly got to come on the team! I'm one of the beaters and the only girl in any of the house teams. Sexist conspiracy if you ask me. It would be amazing if you joined us!" Marlene exclaimed excitedly. Rory looked thrilled. James looked dejected.

"Hold up. As captain I am going to make sure you try out like everybody else. I'm not going to be biased like Tuffley Senior last year alright?" Potter said immediately becoming serious. It was funny how important Quidditch was to him.

"Deal." Rory replied cheerfully as she took his hand to shake it. The beautiful brunette who within hours of setting foot in our castle had obviously already fallen for Black's hair and grin asked in attempt to strike a conversation, "Are you on the team? You seem like you'd be a bloody good beater."

Marlene snorted before Sirius replied proudly, "I'm commentator- I was banned from Quidditch in second year after Minnie V caught me dying my cousin's hair red and hanging her from the chandelier."

Aurora giggled slightly. Marlene raised her eyebrows before saying, "Not that he would have made the team anyway." Which earned a round of agreeing laughter from pretty much the rest of us.

Just then we heard a voice from the other side of the room. "Will you lot shut it?" It was Dorcas Meadows.

Dorcas walked from the steps with Matthew Tice. Both in our year. "Or let us join you." She said with a smile.

"Of course!" Alice and I both said simultaneously. Dorcas sat herself between us while Matt joined Frank and Remus by the fire. We all sort of drifted into different conversations before I noticed the pyjama top Dorcas was wearing. "Hold up." I said suddenly.

"What?" Alice asked.

"What team does Dorcas support?" I asked Alice suspiciously. Dorcas looked at me curiously.

"Holyhead harpies isn't it?" Alice replied, looking at me as if to say what in Merlin's name are you doing. Dorcas looked at me weirdly.

"Yes, I thought so." I replied smirking. "Matt which Quidditch team do you support?" I yelled across the room.

"Chuddley Cannons!" He replied causing much uproar among the people across the fire. "Why?"

"No reason." I said smiling sweetly. Dorcas' face went red with realisation. Jackpot. "Dorcas." I asked innocently. "Why, pray tell, are you therefore wearing a pyjama top that says 'Chuddley Cannons' rather than 'Holyhead Harpies' on it." She smiled awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck. Alice's face lit up.

"I found it in my attic?" She suggested weakly. We were not having it.

"YOU AND MATT?!" Alice hissed excitedly.

"Shut up!" She replied starting to grin.

"When?" Alice asked smiling. "And why the hell haven't you told us?"

"We were talking over the summer but nothing happened until tonight. We were just in his dorm and well yeah." She said cheerfully. Although we had caught her out she seemed remarkably happy.

"Longbottom!" Alice called to Frank. "Ask Matt what he and Dorcas were doing in your dorm." She said giggling. Dorcas thwacked Alice round the back of the head.

"Speaking of relationships- have you heard? Apparently Teresa's going out with someone again but no one seems to know who." I quickly shut up. I was going to get as much information from Dorcas as possible. Those rumours better not have been true.

There was a brief interjection as Black yelled "You and Dorcas?! Pulling!" I laughed.

"Is that where she is now?" Alice asked excitedly. "It's all rather romantic isn't it? Meeting up after hours- dangerously exciting. Oh I do hope its Richard Taylor from Ravenclaw- he is positively lovely."

"My money is on Andy Phillips- I think they went to Hogsmede last year together and Lily didn't you catch them snogging on one of your rounds?" Yup. It was obvious I was not going to get anything of any relevance from Dorcas so I decided to answer truthfully.

"Yeah but she told me he snogged like a pufferfish so I don't think that went anywhere."

Marlene chose this moment to join in our conversation to say, "Of course Teresa would know how pufferfish snog- she certainly knew how my boyfriend did." Oh. I forgot to mention. Marlene and Teresa hated each other mainly because in fourth year, Teresa happened to get off with Marlene's boyfriend at the Christmas dinner. That didn't end too well. That may have also been where Marlene's hatred for men sprouted.

"That was unnecessary." Alice said frowning. She didn't like Marlene and Teresa's feud any more than I did. The portrait door decided to swing open just then to reveal a very pink Teresa.

"Oi you lot!" She said to us from the doorway. "You do realise its ten to one don't you?" Shit.


End file.
